EU BUSINESS NEWS / German CEO Excellence Awards 2022 9 , Jan22589 Most Innovative Adult Learning Platform CEO 2022: Renate Wittmann scio.zone GmbH is a German edtech start-up which uses modern formats to influence and develop further education in a way that makes learning fun again. CEO, RenateWittmann joined the company in July 2021 and her hard work and dedicationwithin the role has seen her achieve success within EU Business News’ German CEO Excellence Awards 2022. We got in touch with Renate to learnmore about the company and her career. Throughout her life, Renate Wittmann has gained a lot of experience, enabling her to perform in her current role as CEO with great expertise and success. She has been teaching since 20 years old, when she began holding classes for volunteer leaders. After studying social pedagogy and pedagogy with the focus on andragogy, Renate facilitates national and international trainer certifications as the head of product development for a publishing company for personality testing and development. During this time, she was also responsible for software development and IT. After that Renate had gained four years’ experience as a product manager at a leading German academy and then in July 2021 she became CEO of scio.zone. Renate commented, “My entire professional life now comes together in this role. My experiences help me to master the versatile roles that management in a startup brings with it.” Renate has never stopped learning and training over the years, saying, “I am a lifelong learner and I want to keep it that way. Not a day without learning. At the moment, one thing close to my heart is that I contribute to letting scio.zone prosper.” scio.zone lets customers learn whenever and wherever they want, its continuously growing network of experts dedicated to delivering seminars (both online and in person), podcasts, videos, e-learning, e-books, and various courses and training. As an education platform, it offers 360-degree learning perspectives, which means it also helps academies to digitise their businesses and provides fulfilment for smooth operations. For companies, scio.zone offers profound knowledge, training and transferable skills, enabling them to upskill and reskill their employees. In addition, the edtech company supports them to establish internal and external academies and participant management. This makes training budgets manageable and training needs easy to manage. As a platform for trainers, consultants and coaches, scio.zone is unique, offering an end-to-end connection to education. For scio.zone, transparency in dealing with customers is very important, which is why it takes time out for its clients to talk, support, network and value each different mindset and expertise. It is also dedicated to building partnerships with corporate clients that last, clarifying their expectations and further education needs and goals and striving to exceed them. As a leader, Renate sees herself as an enabler, encouraging her team to come together with the goal of supporting customers, and facing any challenges that arise. She said, “Each team member is invited to be a part of the vision. Together, we constantly adjust it and make sure that we recruit employees who share our purpose.” And she has found building a new company to be both exciting and challenging at the same time. Renate tells us, “In order to establish all areas, I am challenged daily to switch between the different roles. All areas of company management are important and it is necessary to keep developing and growing. The simultaneity sometimes becomes a challenge when you have to be an IT manager, key account, customer service, accountant, and much more all at once and don’t have hundreds of employees to delegate to. However, the appeal lies absolutely in the fact that you are involved in all the development processes and can shape a new entity.” The COVID-19 pandemic has also been a significant challenge for Renate and the company. Not only has it changed society, but also the entire way of working life. Renate said, “Remote work demands new ways of collaboration, with life and work merging much more. Developments have accelerated and the pressure of digitalisation is growing. People and organisations not only need more resilience in these volatile times, but they need new work processes, in collaboration and in personal development. “Learning takes on a central role here. I think that learning should not only be related to one’s own cosmos, but that the focus should be in interdisciplinary competencies. At a time when job profiles are disappearing due to automation, other perspectives on working life are needed.” Renate is now focused on the future of scio. zone, with 2022’s plans being on continued customer acquisition, outreach, marketing and technological advancement. scio.zone is aiming for internationalisation, entry into the lifelong learning journey, and offering of innovation hubs. Renate concludes, “We still have many ideas. We would like to contribute with our platform to decentralise education and enable people worldwide to gain new perspectives of personal and work life through learning.” Company: scio.zone GmbH Contact: Renate Wittmann Email: [email protected] Website: www.scio.zone
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